Boost the Public Demand for Soft Matter Education and Career Opportunities with a Homemade Video

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that a homemade video can significantly increase public awareness and interest in soft matter science and careers, highlighting the need for more educational resources.

Contribution

The paper introduces a simple video-based approach to effectively promote soft matter education and career awareness among the public.

Findings

Video increased public interest in soft matter by 27.8%

Participants called for more soft matter educational resources

Public awareness of soft matter concepts improved after viewing

Abstract

The study aims to promote the awareness and education of soft matter which has become a popular research topic owing to its capability of developing self-assembling materials for numerous industries such as self-healing materials. To pursue after this aim, we composed a homemade video to illustrate the soft matter concepts, followed by distributing a pre/post attitudinal survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the video on promoting the awareness of soft matter. The survey showed that the video effectively stimulated the public interest in soft matter-related knowledge, research, and careers by 27.8 percent on average. Moreover, the participants demanded more investment and soft matter education, suggesting that WPI provide more resources on developing soft matter education.